John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Hits New 12-Month Low – What’s Next?

Shares of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) reached a new 52-week low on Friday . The stock traded as low as $29.61 and last traded at $29.79, with a volume of 339851 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $30.63.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on WLY. Zacks Research raised John Wiley & Sons to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of John Wiley & Sons from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, December 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of John Wiley & Sons in a report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

John Wiley & Sons Stock Down 2.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $34.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.88 and a beta of 0.98.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 4th. The company reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.13. John Wiley & Sons had a net margin of 6.11% and a return on equity of 28.23%. The business had revenue of $421.75 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $416.40 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. John Wiley & Sons has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.900-4.350 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

John Wiley & Sons Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 30th will be issued a $0.355 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 30th. This represents a $1.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.8%. John Wiley & Sons’s payout ratio is currently 75.53%.

John Wiley & Sons announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 25th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 11.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 19.0% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 571,426 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,503,000 after buying an additional 91,294 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new stake in John Wiley & Sons in the first quarter worth approximately $723,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in John Wiley & Sons in the second quarter worth approximately $1,998,000. AdvisorShares Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of John Wiley & Sons during the 2nd quarter valued at $466,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 82.5% in the second quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 20,284 shares of the company’s stock worth $905,000 after purchasing an additional 9,172 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.94% of the company’s stock.

About John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons, Inc is a global publishing and educational services company founded in 1807 and headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey. The company operates through two primary segments: Research & Publishing and Education. Through these segments, Wiley produces a wide range of scholarly journals, books, reference works and digital products for academic, scientific, technical and medical markets, as well as professional development and higher education learning resources.

In its Research & Publishing segment, Wiley publishes thousands of peer-reviewed journals and maintains the Wiley Online Library, a leading platform for scientific and scholarly content.